There is not enough love in the world for this blog post. If I could make this a t-shirt, I would:

“Healthy eating and exercise to live long and have a powerful body actually have nothing to do with appearance.  They may, coincidentally, have an effect on my appearance, such as weight loss or gaining muscle tone.  We won’t know for a while, because I’ll be pursuing them in a leisurely, sustainable manner.  But if my body does eventually get leaner or more toned, and you want to take credit for that, feel free to accept it as a consolation prize.”

And I want to savor it as a response to the people who will probably make comments about how “great” I look as I go through this training and health journey, who will falsely assume I was trying to lose weight.